Some things change – others stay the same…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqURi4ITFTs

Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v2.0.1

The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is a freeware open source utility that retrieves your Product Key (cd key) used to install Windows from your registry. It allows you to print or save your keys for safekeeping. It works on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007 family of products. It also has a community-updated configuration file that retrieves product keys for many other applications. Another feature is the ability to retrieve product keys from unbootable Windows installations.

Freeware – http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an art and a science. How do you get your site ranked well by the search engines? How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice, right?

Well, the best place to start is to understand the basics. A good reference is “The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization,” which is a free guide from SEOMoz.

These folks also have a free toolbox of helpful aids to evaluate and test your website.

http://www.seomoz.org/toolbox

You probably Google every day but are you using the advanced features to get the most out of your search results? Here’s an easy way to get started down the path to better Google results. It’s given in the spirit of teaching you how to fish, rather than giving you the fish.

Run the following search on Google: file: pdf google cheat sheet

The “File:” command with the PDF file type will return results for Google Cheat Sheet PDF files. One of these is bound to be a good review of how to use the Advanced Search commands.

If you don’t find something of interest you could just go to:

http://www.googleguide.com/
OR
http://www.google.com/librariancenter/librarian_tools.html

but that’s like just giving you a fish.

I’ve always been a great fan of using screen captures to document and explain things. I use SnagIt from TechSmith every day. These folks also make the Camtasia software for making screencasts (mini movies of your computer screen.) They have a free beta of software that kind of combines a simplified set of features from both SnagIt and Camtasia. It’s Called Jing. There is a Windows and a Mac version of the free downloadable client. It’s worth a try if you’re looking for a simple and free screen capture utility.

You can save your captures to a file, to a Flikr account, or to a Screencast account.  (Screencast offers a free trial for 60 days.) You don’t need a screencast account to use the utility though.

What if you could scan your invoices into QuickBooks without having to type in all the info from every piece of paper that comes through your office? Would that save you some time? Well, we have a solution for you!

FormCliQ™/Office is the only practical desktop application that allows you to easily capture data from important business documents such as invoices (and many others too), and accomplish a fast and accurate transfer into QuickBooks®. All you have to do is point and click!

Order it here, time saved will pay for it in 30 days!

Want CYBERCity to install it for you? Let us know!

Here’s a handy tool to test the speed and optimization of your website. Try this free website speed test to improve website performance. Enter a URL to calculate page size, composition, and download time. The script calculates the size of individual elements and sums up each type of web page component. Based on these page characteristics the script then offers advice on how to improve page load time. The script incorporates best practices from HCI research and website optimization techniques into its recommendations. The site is hosted by Andrew B. King who wrote the book on site optimization: “Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization” (Out of Print.) He also offers a “Tweak of the Week” and that seems to be up-to-date.

I tested the CYBERCity site and the results showed good results with areas we could improve.

Here’s a handy tool: Linkbun-ch What is LinkBunch? A web tool to bundle a bunch of links. It condenses multiple URLs into one short address. Quite often I have to send a list of links to someone to review, or a list of links I want to send to myself to remember, and research latter when I have a chance. With LinkBunch, you take a list of links and put them into one “bunch”, which becomes just one single link–which looks like a TinyURL or SnipURL link–and save that one link instead of having find a place to store my list. If you use Firefox there is an extention that will open the list of links in your browser – all tabbed up and ready to review.

Here’s a handy site to help you complete PDF forms online: PDFEscape.com

You can open a PDF Form on your computer (upload) or on the web (enter URL.) This is a very handy service. No need to buy Adobe Acrobat (unless you want to create the original PDF forms.) The tool will also let you add text boxes, arrows and annotate the PDF. That would be handy for a fast and easy way to add notes to a PDF.

The free version lets you complete the form and print it. The premium ($$) version will let you email the form.

You can also setup a PDFescape link to a PDF form on your website that will allow users use this service to complete PDF forms, an interesting feature.

http://www.pdfescape.com/